George Sheppard remembers the six-piece pop group were crammed into the tiny Yours and Owls cafe (now Rad Bar).

“The sound guy had kept having to walk directly through the middle of the stage during the middle of a song to run up the stairs and keep tweaking the sound,” he said.

Memories of that “funny little gig” may make the vocalist and keys player chuckle, but he said that early support from Yours and Owls meant it was a “no brainer” to return for their Big Top show.

The August 11 concert was not originally part of the tour schedule but they worked it in anyway

“We were all free on the date so it was just a matter of chucking it on the calendar,” George said. Pretty modest words from someone whose band has seen multiple number one hits, currently has the most played song in the Netherlands (Coming Home) and is one of the biggest acts in Australia right now.

George and his sister Amy formed the group as a duo in 2009, adding friend Jay Bovino in 2011.

In 2012 their six-member lineup also included other Sheppard sister Emma, along with Michael Butler and Jared Tredly. By the end of that year they had performed at festivals in South Africa, London and United States while their five-song EP was inside of hte ARIA Top 20.

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Their debut album Bombs Away peaked at number 2 on the ARIA albums chart in 2014 and was nominated for a slew of ARIA Awards; in June the follow up Watching The Sky debuted at number 1.

One thing is a recurrent theme in interviews is whether the Sheppard siblings fight along the way, the answer is “of course”.

“It’s exactly what you’d expect – you have fights, you have those moments where you want to rip each others heads off,” George laughed. “I think you can be completely honest with each other, honesty is pretty important in a creative relationship.”

While the other band members are just like family, so they all receive the same treatment from each other.

“Everybody’s on the same [tour] bus for hours on end and days, months, you become a big family,” George said. “it’s fine.”

Their 30-date national tour is their biggest yet and will stop by regional towns and capital cities.

Sheppard, Yours and Owls Big Top, Innovation Campus, August 11. It coincides with the University of Wollongong’s Open Day.

Tickets via: www.yoursandowls.com.au 

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